Taxes

“an army of IRS agents”

Written by SK Ashby

Republicans are adamantly opposed to raising taxes, of course, but they're also against paying any taxes at all.

Rather than take direct aim at President Biden's proposals for raising tax rates on the rich to pay for his infrastructure spending proposals, conservative groups are bankrolling a new campaign to oppose increased enforcement of existing tax law.

It's just another way to raise taxes, they say.

Conservative groups have launched a campaign of TV ads, social media messages and emails to supporters criticizing the proposal to hire nearly 87,000 new IRS workers over the next decade to collect money from tax cheats.

They accuse the Biden administration of pushing for the IRS expansion as a way to raise taxes, increase dues paid to left-leaning unions, and increase oversight on political organizations, as happened with the rise of Tea Party groups during the Obama presidency.

Conservatives are also using a fake name for their campaign to trick viewers into thinking it came from moderates.

The ad, however, isn’t running under the coalition’s name. In fact, its disclaimer says it’s paid for by Building America's Future — the umbrella entity for a number of organizations that has been in existence for several years. That happens to be the same name of a 13-year-old advocacy group founded by former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Rendell said Friday that his Building America's Future, which supports Biden’s plans including the IRS proposal to crack down on tax cheats, is sending a cease and desist letter to demand Short’s group drop the name from the ad. “Clearly they are worried about our effectiveness to stop the Biden tax increase,” [former VP Mike Pence chief of staff Marc Short] said.

The White House is still publicly flirting with the idea of passing a bipartisan spending plan, but it only grows more clear by the day that bipartisan spending is dead.

Actually, I suppose that's not true; defense spending is still bipartisan.

In any case, the White House says inaction on infrastructure spending is not an option and they will shift course in the near future to more formally call for using budget reconciliation to pass something.

Wealthy Americans are hiding about half of their income from the IRS according to a recent report from the Treasury Department. Big gaps in reporting requirements and lax enforcement allow people with the resources to easily hide income from investments and other sources while wages are all reported.